#RolandMartinUnfiltered - RMU: Byron Allen v Comcast; 4 shot at Clark Atlanta; Black Women's Pay Day; Black experience defined

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

8.21.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Byron Allen v Comcast; 4 shot near Clark Atlanta; Teen arrested for threatening to shoot up a school while gaming with his friends; Black Women's Pay Day; Black experience defined; Countdown to the final season of Power; In Memoriam: Saturday Night Live Music Director, Katreese Barnes Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. It's Wednesday, August 21st, 2019, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Media mogul Byron Allen going to the Supreme Court with his fight against Comcast. He is basing it upon an 1866 civil rights law. And why has the Trump Department of Justice sided with Comcast against Byron Allen? We will explain. Shooting near Clark Atlanta University

on the first day of school. Four people were injured, two students from CAU, two from Spelman. We'll give you the latest details. In another case, a white kid is arrested for threatening to shoot up a school while gaming with his friends, and his white mama is just aghast

that her son is going to juvenile jail. Yes, right, arrest his punk ass. Wait till we show y'all the video. Tomorrow is Black Women's Pay Day. We'll talk about why that's important, and also, I'm going to break down to you what is exactly, what is the black experience? Of course, yesterday, you heard my commentary

in response to Marcellus Wiley on Fox Sports. So, the whole issue of identity and, you know, what's really black and who can really speak for black people. So, I'm going to break down this whole notion of the black experience. Plus, countdown to the final season of Power. We'll hear from Lorenz Tate. We call him the Black Benjamin Button.

And of course, Rotini talking about power. Plus, a memoriam to the former Saturday Night Live music director, Catrice Barnes. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. Roll the mark, unfiltered. Let's go. We'll be right back. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's on for a roll, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Martin. Martin. All right, folks.

Byron Allen, the CEO of Entertainment Studios, suing Comcast and Charter Communications for $20 billion over racial discrimination. He claims that the companies wouldn't carry his networks or even meet with him because Entertainment Studio is a 100% minority-owned company. He also says the networks are in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which prohibits racial discrimination in contracting. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case on November 13th. And if Allen wins, it will be a major victory for black owned companies and black media as well. Now, what's quite interesting about this is that this week, the Trump Department of Justice actually filed a brief siding with Comcast in this whole deal. So according to this, this brief that they actually put out, the Department of Justice, they are arguing that Byron Allen needs to prove that race is the specific reason

as to why he has been denied an opportunity to actually have his networks on Comcast. He has blasted the DOJ, blasted their interference as well. He said this is about enslavement. Pretty interesting. Let's talk about this, of course, with our panel. We've got a couple of lawyers on the panel. First off, joining me to my right, Puerto Rico's Driscoll adjunct professor, adjunct professor at the George Washington University. Also joining us, Monique Presley, legal analyst and crisis manager. We have we have of course Dr. Jason Nichols African American Studies University of Maryland and of course and also joining us right now is Byron Jones who's an attorney here in Washington DC I'm gonna go to Monique sorry Ryan Jones my apologies

Monique I'm gonna go to you first so first of all a lot of people were shocked when Byron Allen said Civil Rights Act of 1866. People like, OK, first of all, I didn't realize those civil rights act of 1866. But it was but it was very interesting that people initially laughed at him. The fact that the Supreme Court is going to hear this case is has shocked a lot of people that it's made its way through the federal court system, all the way to the Supreme Court. And they don't take a lot of cases. Right, right. But you know what? He's lived his whole career that way. He backs up whatever he's going to do with action. It's not a lot of talk. A lot of people have no idea even of how successful he is. Of course, people like us know that being in the industry, but I applaud what he

did. I wish that more people who were in the entertainment business who know good and well that, yes, he was discriminated against in this company was because of color. There were specific intent to do it for that purpose and that it wasn't for any other pretextual reason that they're going to come up with. It's a shame that you don't get the support of the justice system right now because, well, because of all of the reasons that I'm sure we'll find a way to talk about it. But I think it's a good step that the Supreme Court recognizes this needs to be heard. I'm not confident about what they're going to do, but I think it's a good step that it's being heard.

What's interesting about this, again, is the fact that he filed this in 2015. It's now four years. It's made its way all the way up. And so this is what the Trump Department of Justice said. They said that although the statute does not expressly describe a necessary causal link between a plaintiff's race and a defendant's refusal to contract. The Texas most most naturally read to require but for causation and background common law principles confirm that a but for rule applies. Now, again, if you read the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which is sort of which is quite interesting, again, something that was passed by huge margins. It was around one of the reconstruction acts, 13th, 14th and 15th amendment as well. And it also established citizenship. And so it's really interesting again, looking at this and reading it. And what do you make though of Byron Allen using this particular Civil Rights Act? He's not saying, oh, you guys just wouldn't meet with me. He's literally using a law that was

passed in 1866 as the basis of his claim. I think it's intelligent. What it does is it elevates the audience that's going to review, the court that's going to review this claim. You take it to the federal system. That's how you get to the Supreme Court. He didn't go state. He didn't go local. He wanted to go to a place where he's going to have the biggest platform to speak his mind. And now it does call the conversation to us to say, hey, look, are we doing enough?

How is it still possible for this to even be a conversation? Because you are a black owned media entertainment company that you can be excluded from Comcast and getting your messages out to the black to nationwide black folks nationwide. And that's what Comcast is doing. Here's what it says. All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States should have the same right in every state and territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence and to to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens and shall be subject to like punishment,

pains, penalties, taxes, licenses and exactions of every kind and to no other. Jason, again, reading that, what the law says is that, you know, black folks are the same as white folks. I should have the same opportunities that they do, which is what Byron Allen is saying. Absolutely. That's exactly what he's saying. I really, you know, I can't see how, you know, the Supreme Court and how the how the Trump administration would go against that. But nothing the Trump administration does surprises me at this point. I think we're going to, you know, see again another example of how elections have consequences. And, you know, we see how the judicial element of elections and the consequences that they bear, not only in this case, but in even more serious

cases around the country, not saying that this isn't serious, but in life and death cases. Right. But what's unfortunate, Roland, is that I agree in part, disagree in part. I think under a prior iteration of our Supreme Court, we may not have gotten or we're not likely to get a good result. That's why the fact that they're taking the time to look at this, and this isn't a case of first impression. We have the right to contract and you're not supposed to be discriminated against in contracting. The reason it's so hard to prove is because people have the right to do business with whom they please.

That's part of this free enterprise system. That's part of capitalism in the United States of America. So it's very hard. You can contrast it, same thing, to Colin Kaepernick's case against the NFL. Why isn't this person being hired? Is it because of race? Is it because of action? Is it because of protest?

When you have to basically prove a negative, and that's what Allen's going to have to do here, show that every single other reason that they would claim is not true. And that's the only way that we get to the result where it is. And it's really the benefit, I guess, is that it's not a criminal case because really the standard is still going to be more likely than not. It's not like beyond a reasonable doubt. So I think his case is strong. I just think that the court is reluctant to go into the waters of a person's ability to contract or a company's ability to contract. Rodrigo, what the DOJ says in the making of a contract, he must establish that for the

consideration of race, the defendant would have made the contract. Obviously, if you're Comcast, they're going to say, look, we put TV One on our cable systems. We have launched these other minority-focused networks, Aspire, a Clio TV, also tied to TV One. And so it goes on and on and on, which was a part of the agreement when they bought Comcast, when they bought NBCUniversal. And so that's one of the arguments they make. But the reality is, Captain Hughes had talked about this beforehand at Rainbow Push, when TV One launched, they had to cut a deal with Comcast and give them an equity stake to do it. And that's been the case. So a lot of these black networks, where the cable,

where the distribution company said, OK, we'll put you on. We got to own. So you got to give us an equity stake in your company in order for us to put you on our cable systems. And so what he is saying is, one, I'm not giving anybody any equity. Why can't you put me on these systems? And what we're talking about is, we're talking about, first of all, there were several other cable companies that put his networks on. He's got a variety of networks, a comedy network, a legal network, and several others. And we're talking about significant amounts of money because there are cable networks out there who get five, seven cents per subscriber. And they are making a profit because they get that money every single month based upon the number of subscribers.

I think what we are seeing, what we have seen, again, is this done over again, right? We saw this, we certainly saw this during Reconstruction with the whole concept of 40 acres and a mule. We saw this during the 50s, I think the burgeoning of rock and roll with black artists coming on the scene. The rock and roll companies, of course,

would steal and say the same thing, that you have to give us a buy-in or completely just give us shares of money where we would turn over our copyrights, right? So we see this done over again, and I think what we're seeing now is someone who actually went through the legal process. I mean, we've seen others go through the legal process, but we're really seeing Byron take this through the legal process. I mean, we've seen others go through the legal process, but we're really seeing Byron take this through the legal process. And so I'm really interested in seeing how, what's the outcome and not necessarily the ruling itself, but will others within the industry, media, as well as other minority businesses take his example and go through the legal process to get what has been owed to them based off of discrimination. Ryan, again, we're talking about if he is successful, not all of a sudden the doors also begin to open.

Because the way this system currently is, they are in control. In fact, I can tell you right now, we're at TV1. It was interesting in how these deals even work. You could actually sign a master mso a master agreement with with the cable company that's national but you still were required to go to each individual city and convince the local general manager of that cable uh of that cable affiliate to put you on their system. We had to get real guerrilla in Mississippi because the Washington Post owned a cable system

in Mississippi, 70% black. And the general manager says, oh, no one here has requested TV One. And we're like, are you serious? So we had to take a campaign against them. I went on black radio there and say, all right, drop your cable, get DirecTV. You know, all of a sudden they responded

because we also were on DirecTV. But those are some of the things, tactics that we had to actually employ just to get. When BET launched, we had black preachers and others who had to bombard the cable system saying, put this network on this local cable system. And that's how a lot of the black cable networks had to operate in the last 40 years. So I'm looking at what Byron Allen has done and what his lawyers have done in alleging the facts to make sure they'd have a claim that goes forward.

Comcast tried to dismiss it. That's what you do. Someone files a complaint, before you file an answer, you file a motion to dismiss. Their motion to dismiss was granted. Now it's gotten raised all the way to the Supreme Court whether or not Byron Allen made enough, alleged enough facts to move forward in this litigation. In this litigation, he's still going to have to go and do discovery and find out if Comcast used race to exclude him.

The Department of Justice's position might be we don't want it to get that far. We don't want you going all through the emails of Comcast because it might come out that there was some racism that excluded him. Are you surprised DOJ is filing a brief? Surprised?

Based on what we know about this administration, you would say you're not surprised, but you might understand that they're citing Comcast and saying, yeah, let's just not let them go through this painstaking litigation that could come to say that they are... You'd have to say that they were racist. Are you surprised?

Are you surprised? I mean, here's Byron Allen, Studio, Comcast, Cable Network, DOJ following a brief? Right, but we're looking at a civil rights claim, right? So it's appropriate for the Department of Justice to, and they're filing an amicus brief, so they're saying, we're not in this, but here's what we think about it. We're not in it, but we're in it. And that is appropriate. And there are many others who should do the same thing.

The issue is that they're kind of bringing it down to some old, like, Dred Scott-type analysis on why this is not racism. And that's the part that bothers me. And my counsel here is correct that he's going to have to start over at the beginning. But here's the other thing. When it's a civil suit, money fixes it. So he's not suing. And even if he wins, then they contract with him.

They're never going to do business with him. The only thing that he can hope for is that they are crippled and exposed and shamed to the point that they are willing to work something out. Now, a settlement, sure. But courts rarely do specific performance. $20 billion is a lot of money, but it doesn't open a door for you or for me or for anybody else. Well, some of the other smaller cable companies did buckle and put him on their systems. Jason, last point on this before I go to a break. I'm going to be interested in seeing, will civil rights organizations file briefs supporting Byron Allen over Comcast, who has financially supported many of these same civil rights organizations. Right. I think that that's going to be an interesting thing. I think this entire case

is going to be interesting to see how it shakes out, how involved, you know, and again, I appreciate both of the comments from the lawyers because I'm not a lawyer. So it was very interesting. It is going to be very interesting. But you say the Holiday Inn Express, so you can go ahead and speak on it. Exactly. All right, got to go to a break right now. Ryan, I appreciate it. Thanks so very much.

Folks, when we come back, what actually is the black experience? What does that actually look like? We're going to talk about it next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Next, the Roland Martin Unfiltered. youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. Four students were injured in a shooting near the campus of Clark Atlanta University last night. The shooting happened during a block party.

The location was on the steps of a library used by Clark Atlanta University, Spelman and Morehouse students. Here's the scene after the shooting. Shut up and hit the block party. Here's the scene after the shooting.. Clark Atlanta University said two of the students were from Clark Atlanta and the other two were from Spelman College. Police said when officers arrived, they found four female students ages 17 through 19 with injuries. They were taken to the hospital and are listed as stable. They're not in life threatening condition at all. In a completely separate story, a Florida teen was arrested for making a joke about a school shooting while playing a video game. Here's

folks what happened when the cops arrived at this white boy's home to arrest him. I, Dalton Barnhart, vow to bring my father's M15 to school and kill seven people. And Falcon Warrior 920, who's that? Go ahead and turn around, put your hands on your back. He's under arrest currently for making a threat to cause a mass shooting slash active terror. Cause a mass shooting slash active terror. To cause a mass shooting? Yes. He made a statement, a threat, a written threat to plan or to carry out a mass shooting.

But he's just a little kid playing a video game. And all these kids keep getting arrested. And that's why the FBI and the local law enforcement is spending so much time. Because how do we know he's not going to be the kid from Parkland? He's not going to be the next kid, the kid that shot up Sandy Hook. We don't know that. So when you draw the attention to you by making these statements as they may be jokes, I mean, I wouldn't expect the kid to go, yeah, I'm dead serious. I'm going to go shoot everybody up.

No. When they're caught, it's a joke. I didn't mean it. It was a joke. That's when you're caught. But these games, these kids say stuff like that all the time. It is a joke to them. It's a game.

It is so wrong. My time in law enforcement is spent doing it, is arresting these kids for making these statements all the time and for stopping acts, too, as well. Okay. So that's what our job is, is to make contact because these kids think it is a game or a joke, so they go ahead and make these comments. But it's just a comment, so how is there an arrest? There's a Florida state statute that says you cannot make a written threat

to cause a mass shooting, act, or kill or harm anybody else. Legislature has chosen to do that. He didn't cause or act or do anything, though. He made the statement to. It's a written statement. It's a written statement. It's a written threat to kill or make a mass cause or act or do anything, though. He made the statement, too. It's a written statement. It's a written statement. It's a written threat to kill or make a mass shooting or act of terror. So if I get on there and say I pledge ISIS and I'm going to blow everybody up,

that's the same charge as, you know what, man, I'm fed up, I'm going to go to school tomorrow and shoot up my school. All right, y'all, so that actually is a longer video. Wait, this mama, oh, my gosh. But he's a child. When he said, no, we're taking him to juvenile, she starts losing her mind. Jason, let's just be real clear. If that was me, my daddy would say, hold one second, would have smacked the shit out of me for playing a video game,

saying, yo, I'm going to roll up on school tomorrow and take some folks out. And here's this white woman with all her tears just shocked. And the kids joke all the time. The cops said, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Columbine, hello, Santa Fe in Texas. What the hell are you thinking? So I agree that I see this in a nuanced way. Number one. What's nuanced? Here's the nuance.

Here's the nuance. Number one, when you start to think about zero tolerance, not saying that this was zero tolerance because he made a written threat, but there are lots of situations in which you have people like there was, of course, the famous case where the kid ate a Pop-Tart in a shape of a gun and pointed it at someone and someone said it was a threat. So I think that there are situations where sometimes we go a little too far with the idea of what a threat is and what isn't however uh this kid made a written threat and i understand that's his mama you know what i'm saying like when you when the police show up

and your mama's there your mama might be your daddy is different your mama i don't i know see her i've seen i know some black mamas who would have smacked the hell out of his ass. Maybe at the house in private, but I tell you, I've seen a lot of mamas who have fought with the police because their child was being taken. Rodrigo, here's the problem I have here. There's a law. You cannot make written threats. Okay? They have to take this stuff seriously because they were criticized for ignoring previously written threats.

You say in a video game, in a public chat, I'm going to go to school tomorrow and bring this gun and take some folks out. And then the cops then asked her, ma'am, do you own a gun? She says, yes. He said because she's like, oh, he's a little boy. He won't do anything. I'm telling you, y'all, if y'all had a full video, I wish we played. Because my man said, he got arms? He got feet? Yeah, well, guess what? He can get the gun. And the cop's like, yo, we ain't sitting here having this conversation. And she's just crying. And them white tears are flowing. And these two white cops are like,

no, he going to juvie. So I agree with Jason's point. I think that certain situations are more nuanced than others. This is not one of those situations, right? What we saw and what we continue to see is, unfortunately, white people playing the victim, right? And here you have this mother, and I get she's a mother. She's defending her son, rightfully so. But she's also playing the victim. She said repeatedly, this is a child. This is a boy.

He doesn't know any better. He's 15 years old. Furthermore, that's a reflection on you that you didn't teach your son the proper way. No, brother, it's all right. Go ahead. Go get in that ass. Go get in that ass. I would not ever have said or made such a statement. And particularly. I agree. But why blame his mother? Blame him. He's 15. I blame his ass and his mama. Right. I think the responsibility is on both here.

I was 15 at one point in my life. My mother would have never tolerated anything like that. Right. And particularly, I think it's we have to be cognizant. We're living in a time where such threats. Wait, this is Roland Martin unfiltered, right? So let's be very clear about that. No shit. Really just figure that out? cognizant. We're living in a time where such threats are made. So let's be very clear about

that. Did you smoke weed or drink alcohol as a kid? Of course. Hold on. I answered that question. No, but the reality is I was smart enough not to get caught. I was smart enough not to break the law. And this young man and his mother should have been smart enough not to do the same thing. Monique? So interesting. I'm—I'm confirmed today why I'm the only one on the panel who's the defense attorney who would get called when somebody gets in trouble. Go ahead. Because—because, see, you would need me.

You would need me. You would need me. No, actually, I wouldn't need you. No, but— His ass is clean. Okay. His ass is going to bleed. Okay, here's the thing um this this boy

and i find it interesting from black men who probably have a real problem with younger black boys being tried as adults in the system y'all y'all okay with that he's being tried as a juvenile this one is it because he's white that that actually actually the hollow first all the way man you saw the full video. The police officer was explaining to her that it was a felony, but he was also going to be going to juvenile jail. Right. But go right ahead. And the reason why that is is because the frontal lobe is not fully developed until five years later.

And even later for men. I'm the only girl child on the panel, so I'll go ahead. And this mom is not the issue. White, black or indifferent. If somebody showed up at my door and my child had been downstairs playing GTA and had been putting something in there, That child did not know that by typing in on that game that that was what's considered a written threat in the eyes of the law. Damn that. Whether he knows it's the law or not. Okay. No, no, no. My apologies.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. I'm not saying it is. It is not. Right. I'm real clear that it's not. Right. But what I am saying is we have to inform our children. Which he did not do. But what I am saying is we have to inform our children when they're on these games and the black children and the white children and the brown children and the blue children are all playing these games and are going to be held to these standards.

The police officers were doing what they were supposed to do. This mom who's taken off guard by something she did not expect for that day is doing what she was supposed to do. I don't know if her tears were white or not, but I'm sure that I would have been taken off guard. I would have stood in defense of my son. I would have made sure his rights were being applied. I would have gone with him to the station. I wouldn't have wanted him to be arrested. Maybe I would have gone in the back and done whatever your dad or whoever's dad would have done, but not right then You're saying let me real clear In Houston now daddy would not have waited.

Daddy would have said, what you say? What your ass do? Daddy wouldn't have waited until the cops left. And then he would have done everything he could to assist you because that's the kind of dad that you have. No, no, because my daddy made it perfectly clear. If you get your ass arrested on a Friday,

I ain't coming until Monday. I'm just letting you know. But he would come. No, he, because my daddy made it perfectly clear. If you get your ass arrested on a Friday, I ain't coming till Monday. I'm just letting you know. But he would come. No, he don't come. But he ain't coming that night. Everything you hope. This is where we're in agreement. I'm in agreement with you.

No. I'm in agreement. I'm showing up for my son. Yes. But at the same time, my son at five years old knows you don't yell, hey, there's a bomb when we're in the line at the airport. And a 15-year-old would know not to make threats. We know that you can't say that in his basement.

What we do know is this here. Type in this publicly. These two different things. Here's what we know. You can't search certain websites. Here's what we know. We've had some 15 and 16-year-old kids shooting up school.

Right. And look, we cannot, I'm not done, we cannot play games. You can't. When it comes these days to these kids who are grabbing guns, who are going to school, and it's not just the mass murders,

not just, look, it's not just, you just had what happened at LSU. You are seeing this. You are seeing where the kid, what, the girl told him no going to the prom, that he's having to take her out or whatever the hell. And so, look, they're like, hey, this is what the council said. We're going to sort this out later. But for right now, his ass going to juvenile jail, then we're going to deal with it. I got no problem with that law

because if I'm a parent, the last thing I want to do is sit, look, I got two nieces who will start school tomorrow. And the last damn thing I want to be able to be dealing with is some crazy ass kid

who playing the game, who issues, who puts a threat out there. And if people go, oh, he's just 15, he's a kid, and these little terroristic ass show up at school and shoot up 15, 20 people. Then we go, man, why didn't somebody do something? No, they did their job. The law is what it's supposed to be, but as parents, we have to be informing our children, and we have to be vigilant, and everybody got mad when Trump was trying to blame the video games for things, but this is a

perfect example of something that is happening, and I do think that there is way too much violence going on in those games, and I hate it, and I try to keep all of that stuff out of my house. That doesn't mean that the kid without a gun couldn't have got it accomplished, so obviously we need gun safety and gun laws, too. All I'm saying is... The thing about that mama is all I'm saying. See, you have to ask. No, I think it's part of the... This ain't about that mama is all I'm saying. See your happy ass?

I think it's part the mom. I think it's part the child. I think it's up to the parents as well as the students to educate themselves about the law. You have to know what times we're living in. You cannot make statements like that. You can't make statements like that. You know what?

That's not a bad idea. Lock up parents. Why is it not? Hey, let me tell you something right now y'all this is real simple you know why i didn't smoke or do drugs when i was growing right because my parents i wasn't scared of the cops i wasn't scared of the cops i wasn't scared of jail i was scared of Reginald Lynn Martin Sr., who said, I will whoop your ass. And I was like, hmm, cops, daddy. You know what? Y'all can go ahead and drink all y'all want to, smoke all the weed y'all want to,

because I ain't pissing him off. Because one day I was sitting on the couch watching a movie, and I looked over and looked at my dad's elbow. And I went, that's a big-ass elbow. I looked at my elbow, and I'm like a big ass elbow I looked at my elbow and I'm like that's twice size of my elbow I'm leaving this negro alone I'm just saying so look y'all we can sit here and all this sort of stuff bottom line is yo kids out there don't play some stupid ass games and issue threats don't don't talk to friends. Don't sit here and send text messages talking about,

hey, I want to shoot some folks today. I wish I had a gun. I'm telling you right now, you're playing with fire and you're going to find yourself involved in the criminal justice system if you do it because parents have zero tolerance these days when all of a sudden you got 20 and 22 kids who've been gunned down

in elementary schools and middle schools and high schools. No, we ain't doing no lockdown drills. We're going to lock your behind down before you grab a gun and go to the school. All right, we come back. We're going to talk about the black experience after this break.

Roland Martin, Unfiltered. and subscribe to our YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications. All right, folks, you heard me talk a lot about marijuana stock.org. Why? Because I want to keep you informed of investment opportunities that make sense. We've all watched the growth of the cannabis industry.

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marijuana stock.org. That's marijuana stock.org. When you go there, it's going to take you to actually a crowdfunding page for this campaign, so don't get too alarmed by it. All right, folks, so yesterday here in Roland Martin unfiltered i did a deconstruction of some recent comments by marcellus wiley on fox sports with regards to colin kaepernick and jay-z and college girlfriend nessa and eric reed and kenny stills all surrounding protests in the nfl and all sorts of stuff along those lines and so the reason i was so people said dang man you went in hard because i was greatly bothered by what marcellus had to say when he was talking about the identity of the

individuals who were involved and in essence there was this whole notion that well jay-z is really blacker really blacker than colin kaepernick, because Colin Kaepernick is biracial and raised by white parents and was in Wisconsin, moved to Central California, as opposed to Jay-Z growing up in the projects there in New York. So for some of y'all who missed it, here are some of the comments of Marcellus Wiley, and then I'm going to come back with my comment. This is an identity issue. You know why the identity of this movement has been lost?

You know why the identity has this movement has been lost? You know why the identity has been lost in this platform of kneeling and what does it really mean? Because the identity of those who are leading it has always been in question. Let's keep it 1,000 up here because my past is hot. My past has expired for this. The past has expired. I've been going back and forth with this from day one at ESPN. Let's go.

Kaepernick comes from a situation where he's never felt the full weight of these injustices. This is a mixed race guy who was raised by a white family from Wisconsin to central California. Respect that does not disqualify you from talking for us. But when you make missteps and miscalculations, Oh, it comes back into play and he never spoke on this when black lives matters movement was at his height think about it 2013 2014 ferguson when jay-z is bailing prisoners out and doing protesters out and taking pictures

and supporting trayvon martin and that family. What was happening? You know, he was taking his shirt off, bro. He was, I knew Kaepernick back then. He was never talking about this. He meets Nessa 2015, all of a sudden 2016, he gets benched, flip flop, not mad. That still doesn't disqualify you. But Nessa comes into play now. And we all know Nessa, respect to her and her ethnicity, but it's not black. So now we got two leaders who don't even feel the weight of the consequences. So guess what you are

allowed to do right now? Have convenience. Ain't no cosmetics here, bro. When I'm in Compton, when I'm in South Central and Harlem, that's my childhood to manhood. Zero to 22 years old. Those three places, I know what it feels like.

When you're talking to Jay-Z, who's been through Marcy Projects, Brooklyn, and all his successes, he's seen this. We both said, go Cap or Nick, go. And let the cause blindly support the man. But the character is now coming to question. And then now, Eric Reid

is taking it and giving him cover eric reed is taking kenny stills another guy respect guys another mixed race individual who's not felt the full weight of this so when you want to take this movement and i hate to play the race card against my own race usually you play the race card against other races right but when i have to see these missteps and these issues all manifest, I get back to the identity of those who are leading it, which has always been in question. And now Jay-Z has answered that question. Let somebody who really knows what this is about handle it. So his was interesting with that particular commentary. And so allow me to have part two

of deconstruction. First and foremost, Marcellus responded to that commentary by saying that, you got it wrong. I grew up in Compton. I didn't grow up in Harlem. Well, actually, if you actually heard that comment, he said from zero to 22, his life was Compton, South Central, and Harlem. So that's why I included Harlem in that. And so, yes, Marcellus, you grew up in Compton, but you invoked Harlem, which is why I brought up the cases that took place in New York, which you were very quiet about when you played in the NFL. But see, if you listened closely to what Marcellus said there, he was saying that this whole notion that Jay-Z can speak to these issues more so than Colin Kaepernick can because of how Jay-Z grew up.

Also in the commentary, he talked about Jay-Z growing up in a public housing complex there in New York City and what he experienced and what he went through. Let me explain to you what that is. That's actually the code for you're blacker. See, in the 70s, what happened was, if you were black and you were in school, they would say you talk white or you talk too proper where you come from. Then in the 80s and 90s, it was, oh,

you one of them suburban Negroes. You didn't grow up in the hood. Now in the 2000s, we've now evolved. Now the whole issue of being biracial. So now we are criticizing folks and we're establishing these levels of blackness. What has happened in this country, unfortunately for black folks who have fallen victim

to white supremacy, who don't even understand what they are saying, is that we have defined blackness as actually meaning coming from broken homes, impoverished, public housing, rats and roaches, single mama, daddy not home, broke, destitute. And we had to fight our way to school every day and the way back home. And we made it through. See, that's how we literally define this idea of what it means to be black. I was in the Cincinnati Music Festival and that was a t-shirt and it said, I'm mixed with hood and some other stuff. And somebody said, hey, you want that shirt? I'm like, hell no, because I ain't mixed with hood do you know why did I grow up in the Clinton

Park neighborhood in Houston yes the problem is when you say the word hood you left off the neighbor part and so the word hood has now meant one thing in the minds of the person who you talking to? See, the reason I brought these books out today is because we need to understand that there is no one black experience. This book here is called African-Americans on Martha's Vineyard from enslavement to presidential visit. A Thomas dresser. Now, that's actually the black experience. Is that every black person? No, but it's also the black experience. Jill Nelson, Washington Post writer, actually wrote about this called Finding Martha's Vineyard, African Americans at Home on an Island. That's what this book is. This is also the black experience. I got a book right here. My man, James Prince from Houston, Rap-A-Lot Records, the art of science and of the art and science of respect. Oh, he talks about

being one of the baddest thugs in Houston and talks about all the legal stuff that he was involved in. Guess what? This is James Prince's experience. He talks about fifth ward and third ward in Houston and how he was one of the baddest cats on the streets there. Yes, this is his experience. Is it the black experience? It's not. Here's a book called This African-American Life by Hugh Price. Hugh Price, smart brother, eventually became the CEO of the National Urban League, talks about his African-American life growing up in a household, family focused on education, him rising to major positions in corporate America, and then running the National Urban League. Very interesting book here called Negroland, a memoir by Margo

Jefferson. She talks about being black and bougie. She talks about being a black woman of privilege and how she was raised and how folks saw her differently than other black folks. Guess what? That that that's also the black experience. Let's talk about W.V. DuBois. Oh, the similar book on black reconstruction. You want to understand the black experience. You might want to read this particular book here. Oh, yes. About 700 pages. But trust me, y'all can get through it. But he talks about, again, the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War and talks about black folks in the South, also in the North, and what Reconstruction meant for African Americans. If you really want to understand, talk about this whole idea of what's the black experience, a lot of black people who were

critical of the Civil Rights Movement because they said, oh, that's really the middle class Negroes who are really fighting this movement. So guess what? You have the editors of the book, The Eyes on the Prize, Civil Rights Reader. Of course, Henry Hampton had an Academy Award-winning, excuse me, Academy Award-nominated documentary on the civil rights movement, The Eyes on the Prize. Even during that movement, he had the back and forth where y'all don't really care about us folks who are sharecroppers versus y'all city folk. You heard all this sort of stuff going on, even though, guess what? Jim Crow was smacking city folk and sharecroppers. But have you ever heard this book here called The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty? The Senator and the Socialite by Lawrence Otis Graham. Oh, yeah. It talks about one of the first black United States senators and how they had generational wealth,

how they threw these exquisite parties all in the north in Washington, D.C. Yeah, it was called The Senator and the Socialite. This also is the black experience. Of course, Alison Stewart had her book on first class, The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School, talking about the black experience. Here's this great book that I also pulled from In Search of Black America, Discovering African-American Dream. But his brother literally went all across the country, going to various black neighborhoods,

trying to search for what exactly is black America. Then, of course, you have Isabel Wilkerson, who had her great book called The Warmth of Other Suns, won all kinds of awards, talking about the great migration of black folks from the south to the north. That's also the black experience. Then, of course, you have this great book called Black Families in White America by Andrew Billingsley, the 20th anniversary edition of a modern classic by a preeminent Afro-American sociologist.

What does it mean to be a black family in white America? Then, of course, my man Gerald Horne, University of Houston, one of the top historians out there. He really explains this whole thing in the book called White Supremacy Confronted, U.S. imperialism and anti-communism versus liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela. If you want to understand where a lot of this came from, right here, white supremacy. But why all this important? Why is my last book easy? Dr. King's book, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community, where he literally talks about where we stay in this black folks and talks about the various experiences he talks about the issue

of poverty talks about the negroes of course who didn't necessarily experience the same level of poverty but they still experience jim crow what am i getting at We are idiotic by continuing to allow individuals to play this game of defining the black experience as being one thing. There is no one black experience in America. Here we are this week celebrating or commemorating 400 years since the first 20-odd Africans arrived in Virginia in August of 1619. And in these 400 years, there have been numerous experiences of black folks. The reality is you can grow up in a black family, in a black neighborhood, and go to black schools, and go to black churches, and belong to black organizations, and when you become an adult, don't give a damn about black people. And you can be a biracial person who grew up in a white family, who live across the country and the world.

And you know what? You commit yourself to the issues that impact black people. See who else is actually having these silly ass conversations? What other groups are having these dumb ass discussions as to who really is more authentic? Who's really more hood? Who's really more black? That's how stupid this stuff is. I remember when I after I had pledged Alpha Phi Alpha, we were at a party and we had a brother who was from Sam Houston State. Walk up to me like, oh, yeah.

Oh, y'all think y'all. This is actually what it's like. I don't use the word. Oh, y'all think y'all some smart niggas because y'all go to Texas A&M. But see, but y'all, this is how we do it at this school. I had a brother who was at Prairie View who said the same thing. And they were talking all this trash. And I said, let me ask you a question.

What's your chapter graduation rate? Then they got silent. I said, oh, y'all ass can't talk? I said, see, you want to challenge me because I went to Texas A&M and pledged Alpha. And you went to San Houston State, not an HBCU. Another brother went to Prairie View. That is an HBCU. So you want to question my blackness and question whether I'm real.

I said, when our chapter and our history only had one brother who did not graduate and he's not authorized to come to any of our events. I said, so let me ask you a question. What does it mean to be an alpha? Is it a matter of you go to a black school or does it matter your ass actually graduate and do the things that an alpha man is required to do? He got real silent. I even had a sister when I went to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and I joke with her about today because I jacked ass when she said it. We were standing by the photographer's table and so she was a sister and somebody said, somebody somebody introduced me to her she says oh oh you the brother who didn't know who he was who went to a white school I said oh really I said where did you go she said I went to Southern I said oh so what

you're saying is you need to go to HBCU to figure out that your ass was black I said I grew up in a black neighborhood, black family, all that sort of black. I said, I knew I was black by the time I was 18. Now, when I talked about that one day, some folks who went to the HBCUs got real upset with me. But what they didn't understand was what she was trying to do was denigrate me because I didn't go to an HBCU. And I said, boo, you can go to an HBCU and still be clueless about black people.

Just like you can go to a PWI and be clueless about black people. The black experience in America is wide. It is diverse. It is broad. And what we have to stop doing is playing these silly games of questioning somebody's blackness. And what we should be asking very simply, are you doing the work? Are you doing the work? And I disagree with the people who call Jay-Z a sellout. Just like I don't allow people on my show to call black Republicans sellout or call them Uncle Tom's or call them Oreos, any of those names. Just like I don't let anybody come on this show and call somebody the N word or call them a coon.

Because, see, that's offensive. But what we better understand is that we have a generation of black kids who are not growing up in hoods. A generation of black kids who are growing up biracial. So what are we saying to them by saying, well, you really don't have a black experience. That's not really a black experience. Well, what is it? Then when we use the phrases, you haven't felt the full oppression, the full weight of what it means to be black. Well, actually, how many people have? I mean, Marcellus went from

Compton to the Ivy League school. I'm quite sure there were some black people who said, why you didn't go to HBCU? Oh, I heard that. I had a brother who challenged me when I was a senior in high school. I can't believe, see, that's my problem. All y'all Negroes are going to the white schools. I said, really? Where are you going? I'm going to TSU, Texas Southern University, which is right across the street from my high school. And you know what I told him? I said, that's interesting. The Texas Southern University has a school of communications and they literally are right across the street. And I was actually named the best student in my high school in my four years there. And they never actually recruited me. I was across the street.

I said, so I'm gonna follow the money. Because you know why? My parents are gonna have three kids in college at one time, and damn it, I'm not trying to be broke. My brother went to A&M, my sister went to A&M, and I went to A&M. All three have graduated, all three are doing well, and guess what? We ain't got no damn student loan debt because it's all been paid off. But the point I'm making is that's the black experience. HBCUs, the black experience. Community college, the black experience. Growing up in South Central or Watts or Compton or Harlem or Lithonia or Prince, Georgia's County, that's all the black experience. But we are the only ones who are playing this stupid game where who can be blacker than the other person as opposed to what's the work we're focused on.

That's why I did the commentary. That's what offended me the most. who ain't even black, who give a damn about our issues, than a whole bunch of black folks who will turn their back and don't care and say it's all about me, myself, and I, as opposed to the issues at hand. Watch what you say around your children. Watch what you do around your children. Because if we are putting the wrong things in their heads, they're going to carry that stuff forth and repeat those things in school, repeat those things at church,

repeat those things to their friends, and we have another generation of black folks who are questioning the blackness of somebody else. Y'all got thoughts? I agree with everything you said, but I think you left out the black experience regarding afro-caribbean and africans as well because well i didn't go to the diaspora i was i was i was perfect i i confined to the 50 states for a reason okay but because for me i don't call that the black experience i call that

the african diaspora that's why go ahead and it is you're right it it is the that the African diaspora. That's why. Go ahead. Go ahead. You're right. It is the African diaspora. But I think that once our brothers and sisters from the continent or for the Caribbean move here, then they are a part of the black experience. Because to make this conversation a little bit more comprehensive, I am fatigued, very similar to this sort of Chick-fil-A and Popeye's debate, right? When brothers and sisters from the continent and for the Caribbean move here, none of us are privileged under the thumb of oppression. Because what we say, black Americans are descendants of slaves specifically say, oh, well, they're not black, right? Because they didn't grow up here because they didn't have the same experience. And I'm fatigued by that conversation

as well, right? Because the reality is when they get here, they are a part of the black experience and they help to shape black identity across because blackness extends well beyond where you were raised or where you lived. Right. So we have to think broadly about what blackness means. And it can't just be limited to black American experience, which is why I specifically show the Gerald Horne. Right. Right. Because Gerald Horne in that book lays out how global white white supremacy has impacted people of color. African-American males in the United States are disproportionately stopped, searched, frisked, assaulted, arrested, killed by law enforcement. The number of decades that that's been happening extends to the beginning of this country. The data of recent years shows that it happens more predominantly in southern poor areas and in cities, in urban areas. I have not felt the weight of that experience. One, because I'm a woman and the numbers show plainly that it happens largely to African-American males. Right.

Two, I've been fortunate enough to of women who have been in that position to not be one of them. felt the weight of what the Kaepernick-Neal was originally for, which was African-American males who are being illegally targeted and mistreated and killed by law enforcement, then that would be true. And if someone critiqued me and my leadership, even though I'm a capable advocate, saying that wouldn't offend me. It doesn't mean that I don't have a black experience. It just means that I haven't experienced the weight of the original cause for which he took that knee and for which others are now still taking the knee. And then the only other thing I would say is the only reason we have a black experience as opposed to an African experience is because a white man told us it was black.

So every time I hear black, I tend to get back on African, because I know that black and white are not real races. There's just the human race that a few decades ago, white men in the legislature decided it was OK to transition us from nigger to negro to colored. Right. We nigger, colored, negro, black. And then we Afro-American, African-American, black interchangeably. I think it's important that while we try to figure out who is and is not black, we recognize nobody is. But everybody is because it's just a legal construct and a social construct that was put on us by a supremacist head. Now, if we want to adapt it for our own even though roland i know you disagree about adapting nigger for our own thing you don't like that oh no we can't i ain't i ain't adopting whatever

they had as oppressive i ain't adopting y'all keep that but in my opinion every time they put a color label on us it was meant to oppress us also so I choose to adapt my ethnicity and my country or countries of origin so that there are no issues with my Caribbean brothers and sisters, with my brothers throughout all of diaspora. I'm not with Eidos people. You know how I feel about that. And to me, anything else we do in this area that doesn't highlight that anybody who halfway looks like a black man is in trouble on the streets is just a waste of time. Well, I just I just I but the greatest but the greatest thing that drives me crazy again is that we are we are we are having a conversation about who's blacker than actually the issue that's what is fundamentally wrong for me and i've seen this throughout my entire life and again i've seen how the conversation has shifted and what does it say what what are we saying to somebody who's biracial

oh yeah you're not you're not really one of us oh yeah, you're not, you're not really one of us. Oh, yeah, you might be fighting, but you're not really one of us. And see, that's the next step. And that's the issue that I have there. So when you start saying the identity of the person who's leading is in question, I know exactly what you're doing. And see, you also can't use the rhetorical devices of respect, respect. No, it's not respect because you're coming back with another particular comment. And so I know. I didn't mind him telling the truth of his experience and expressing his opinion.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here's my point. That's what we do. That's my point. First of all, we can give a lot of opinions. Yeah. But if it's also BS, you can get called out. Italians wouldn't want to be led by non-Italians.

No, no, no, no, no. And they would ask you for your papers. No, no, but here's the piece though. No, you would get called out. Italians wouldn't want to be led by non-Italians. And they would ask you for your papers. No, no, but here's the piece, though. No, you would have to prove it. You'd have to get your GM test or whatever. Guess what? No same Italians. When they bring their ass to Denver, all of a sudden they get sick, and then they go to the hospital and realize, damn, I got sick or something. Guess what? Thank black people. But they

would need the help, Roland. You see what I'm saying? You wouldn't be Italian. You'd just be helpful. But first of all, you can call Italian all day, but the reality is if Jesse Williams shouts his mom and daddy out, daddy's black, mama is white, the reality is Jesse black, okay? And Jesse also has a white mama. Because we said that. No, no, no, no.

Because we agreed on that. He's white, too. No, no, we also. He's white. I'm also saying he's black and white. Yes, he is. Because his black daddy is sitting right there. That's what he is. But what I'm not going to do is I'm not saying he's black and white. Yes, he is. His black daddy's sitting right there. That's what he is.

But what I'm not going to do is I'm not going to penalize nor dismiss him by saying you ain't really black because your mama's white. He's half black. Right. But the point is when we play this game of that. No, it is a game. We're playing that, but it's a game because if that brother cares about the issues and is putting it on the line, dude, I'm going to applaud that. But what I'm not going to do is say, ah, you're kind of okay, but you're not. Go ahead.

If you push back, Roland, on that notion, what about brothers like Herman Cain and Ben Carson? Doesn't matter. Who also have the authentic, again, authentic black experience. And I am going to. They're black and black. And here's the piece. Here's the piece. First of all, Clarence Thomas is a black man from rural Georgia.

And I am going to disagree. What did I say? It's based upon what's the work are you doing? I am going to disagree. Anarchist, I ain't going to say you're not black. What I am going to say is what I am going to say is the policies that you are espousing and promoting are going against

the interest, not just of black people, but many people. When I disagree with what Bid Cross is doing as her secretary, I can be critical. I'm not going to say I'm not going to call him a coon. I'm not going to call him an Oreo. I'm not going to call him a sellout. I'm not going to call him an Uncle Tom. What I am going to say is the policies you are advocating are wrong.

Because guess what? If there was a white secretary of HUD who took the exact same policies of Ben Carson, I'm going to say your policies are wrong. But what I am saying is when you have a media piece, when you use that platform and what we say and what we're sending out, when we set up this sort of test of who is blacker and because then what happens is Some are blacker than others. No, no, no, no, no. Here's the problem with that. No, here's the problem with that.

Some are black and white. No, no, but here's the deal. No, no, but here's the problem with that. It doesn't matter. No, no, no, no, no. Because the phrase of who's black. No, no, no, no. Because the phrase of who's blacker No, no, no. Follow me. The phrase of who's blacker is not dependent upon if your mama and daddy's black. What they say is, no, no, no.

Your experience is blacker. What he's really saying is, because Jay-Z grew up in the hood, in the public housing complex, because he saw drugs. No, no, no, no. What he's saying is what he's saying is that's blacker and what i am saying is all of those i am not going to define the black blacker blackest experience based upon whether you grew up in a public housing complex

because guess what i didn't grow up in a public housing complex i grew up in a black neighborhood that was specifically built by hood in the 40s for black people. And you know what I saw? I could stand on my porch and see the DEA and the Houston police take down a crack house right there, five houses down, but I can look across the street and see a two-family household raising their kids. I can see a single mother down the street. I can see an elderly couple here. We had all those experiences. That's fine. Everybody can belong.

No, no, but my point is, I'm not going to let somebody say, well, yeah, that was a black experience, but if you actually were in the CUNY homes in Third Ward, that's a blacker experience. I get it. And that's the problem when we're saying what's blacker. I know, but I mean, to me, I know, but Mar. I know. But I mean, I know.

But Marcellus is just I mean, agree, disagree is not worth that much time. What I am saying is a whole bunch of people who think like Marcellus, who are articulating what he's saying, and somebody black has to be willing to challenge that notion that that's blacker when it's not. Yes, because you at least have to have that one little drop of blackness because we accept the nomenclature of our oppressors. But if you're Rachel Dolezal, don't tell me what I'm missing while I'm still trying to get a sentence out. No, because I'm not done talking. Rachel Dolezal, right,

wanted, Lord, she's changed her name to Nkechi. She wanted to be black. Yes, she did. God bless her soul. And she has even gone the typical way of the black welfare mom that she's not and gotten in trouble for welfare fraud. God bless her. But she has even gone the typical way of the black welfare mom that she's not and gotten in trouble for welfare fraud. God bless her. But

she wanted it so bad and she was only trying to do good things for black people. And everybody, including some people who are right here in this room with me right now, had a real problem with this white woman. Not because she was fraudulent. She was dumb as hell. No.

Because her work was there, Roland. No, hold up. Hold up, stop right there. Hold up. I'm going to take 60 seconds real quick. Why nobody criticizing her because of her work? They were criticizing her for being a fake-ass black person. And what I'm saying, no, no, no, no, no, no.

And if she had just done the damn work as a white woman, she would have been fine. But here's the point about blackness. Here's the point about blackness. We don't know if you have any blackness. What I am saying is that the issue is not what's your one drop, two drops, three drops. What I'm saying is, whatever, I don't care about Rachel Dozal. What I'm saying is this here. The fundamental issue that I have is when we are defining who's blacker

based upon how so if i go how broke were you oh shit that no that ain't really black because you were broke how many rats and roaches y'all oh y'all just had roaches shit y'all had rats and roaches oh hell y'all blacker everybody shouldn't have to put up their poppy. No, and what I'm saying is when you define blackness or who is blacker because you wore broke, that's dumb as hell. So final comment. I think the goal here, right, that we're having this conversation is to normalize blackness, right? We want blackness not to be an issue. And to your point, it is unfortunately an issue because of the legal and social constructs defined by white people, white supremacy, right?

So we live in this context of what is black and what is not, right? And in the case of Rachel, unfortunately, under this construct that we operate in, she did not make the grade, hence why we got the criticism. And so the goal is to normalize blackness. Well, we don't have these debates on who is black, what is black, who is blacker.

It really involves equity and fighting towards equality. And that involves all people, whether you are black or not. That's all I want. Right here. All of this, every experience that I went through the books, that's blackness. One is not blacker than the other. They're all the black experience. That's what we better wake up and recognize.

Going to break, we come back. Black Women's Equal Pay Day, and also we'll sit with a couple of crazy ass cops next to Roller Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real.

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Pieces of a Dream, Kirk Whalum, Average White Band, Donnie McClurkin, Shalaya, Roy Ayers, Tom Brown, Ronnie Laws, and Ernest Quarles. Folks, I'll be broadcasting Roland Martin Unfiltered from Los Cabos those two days. Go to lifeluxjazz.com, lifeluxjazz.com for more information. Love to see y'all there. Okay, this story was absolutely crazy. The Royal Oak Michigan Police are apologizing to Devin Myers for stopping him for allegedly looking at a white woman

all right Hello this is Kimiko and I am in Royal Oak Michigan. I was going to the CVS over here when this young man is stopped because a Caucasian lady said that he looked at her suspiciously and he has been pulled over walking to go to eat by two police officers for suspicion of being black and looking at the Caucasian woman. That's insane. Well, the white woman called 911 and said he's an African-American male. I don't know what his deal is,

but it's making me not feel very comfortable. He's looking at me. Yeah, that's why we kneel. That's why we protest. That's why we fight. Because he could have ended up dead from what she did. For me, that is what this is all really about. The fact that in 2019, we are in the exact same place that could have

been 1958 and 54 that's a material or when you go to lynching lynching memorial most of those people who were lynched when he read the placards there oh he was leering at a white woman yes he spoke to a white woman one was lynched because he said hello to a white woman yes it's again it's the same sort of narrative that plays out time and time again that we've seen unfortunately you know i think that in some ways black and oppressed and brown people should be doing the same thing. Whenever a person, non-white, whenever a white person looks at us awkwardly, we should call the police. White person looking at me. Right.

We should feel as if our life is threatening. Because there have been many times. I have been in the District of Columbia. I mean, and that's real. Right. Where a white person has been staring at me, whether it's my hair, my sweater vest, my bow tie, whatever the case is. And I've been almost threatened to call the police. And in some cases, I actually did,

particularly when the white nationalists came to D.C. to march. It's not safe. Right. And so I called the police and said, I feel threatened. I'm 5'7 and a quarter. I'm 135 pounds. I feel threatened. And I think we need to incorporate and do the same thing.

Okay, tell me if I feel threatened. Check this story out. Yeah, I know what time it is. Those girls are alive. I'm not making news. I'm white. I got you, girl. threatened check this story out yeah i know what time it is well it's not moniz galvis in, Texas, but it is Dallas, Texas. Check out this white man at the post office, y'all. Sir, really? No, sir. I'm a business officer.

Really? This is not good. It's not, it's not, it's not. Doesn't matter. They're playing a fool. I'm legitimately outraged. Well, you can be that way, but you don't. I don't care. Clearly. Clearly, way. I don't care.

Clearly, clearly, dude. I don't care. Shut up. Wow. Give me the farm, you fool. Give me the farm, you asshole. You fucking

gigaboo. Give me the fucking farm. Can you submit police work? Yeah. Give me the farm, you fucking nigger. Ooh. Oh, no. That's intense.

Give me a place, nigger. Ooh. Oh, wow. Now, I'm not quite sure if he has stuff on his belt. I don't know if he was carrying a gun. It's open to carry. Don't know if he was carrying a gun. It's open to carry. Don't know there. But. I mean, what do you say to that?

This is America. Mental illness is real. OK, that man was not just having a whiteness issue. I don't think that's mental illness. No, really. Oh, you think you think that was a sane person who, because of their whiteness issue. I don't think that's no commitment. Really? You think that was a sane person who, because of their whiteness, was doing all of this?

Yeah, that's what it was. Just like the white man in Ohio. He knows that's wrong to say. You don't call somebody a jigaboo. That's a specific context of a term. I can't with y'all, because if I was sitting on Tucker Carlson and he was doing crazy-ass black people. Remember the white man in Ohio who had the, I think he was an electrician?

Yes. And remember he filed a black person home and he was giving them the finger and calling the N-word. And then a week later, I'd have lost my business. I'd have lost everything. I'm sorry. You, I mean, jigaboo, nigger, coon. You know those are offensive terms to people of color, particularly black people.

That's not mental illness. Now, he might have had a mental illness. How is it not mental illness to say out loud what you know about mental illness? Oh, I guess, yes. You are specifically targeting a group of people, a person rather, and that brother I think was Africa because he had an accent, right? So, he wasn't even a regular black person. I did not say that.

Certainly not. There we go. All right, y'all. I saw this video here, so I got a couple more. I saw this video here, and every white person should absolutely, positively, in fact, I want all y'all to download this video and send this to all of your white friends.

Monique, all of your colleagues should watch this video. Why did you call my name? Hi, fellow white people. Are you having a sad because that family's enjoying a picnic in the park while being black? Did that customer in front of you just speak a language that makes you irrationally angry? Well, this is a great time to try. Mind your own f***ing business. With mind your own f***ing business, you'll be able to grow the f*** up and act like a decent f***ing human being. Our patented technology allows you to pull your head out of your ass and see the world beyond the brim of your MAGA hat. Hi honey, I saw some black people at the Starbucks today. Did you mind your own f***ing business? I

sure f***ing did. Stop bothering those nice people today with mind your own f***ing business? I sure f***ing did. Stop bothering those nice people today with mind your own f***ing business. Side effects may include not harassing people, no one getting arrested or murdered by police, a general sense of well-being for people of color, a lack of internet fame and or trolling and coexistence. Please consult your doctor if you are still a piece of s*** after minding your own f***ing business as the symptoms may be a result of a deeper problem and require further treatment. Now available at Anthropologie and Whole Foods. Love it! Love it! As money is giving you the side eye.

I don't care. Way to go, Kat Adele. Love it. Next time, y'all, run the one with no bleeps. Mind your own fucking business. That's a great product. So all of you, if you're looking for a Christmas gift, all your white friends, give them this video as a gift. I think it's a great. All right, y'all power season six, the final season, of course, kicks off this Sunday. We were at essence. We caught up with black Benjamin Button, Lorenz Tate and Rotimi here is our conversation. to the spinner van today i said put you because he just had his jewels on and all his tattoos i said put on the shirt and all you know he just said i'm gonna throw this t-shirt on yeah he didn't walk

out like unbutton his now he walked out all open and every damn thing and i'm like button that up you know when you're but i'll start you have to do it for the ladies but uh you have to do it for the ladies yes ladies they were like button that shit up. It's cold. Yeah, let's go catch a cold. That's how he does it, man. It's in the dead of winter. We're in New York filming. He steps out of the trailer with his whole, I'm like, what are you doing, man? We are sexy Nigerian butterscotch.

We make decisions that, you know, it's cool. I can't wait to Dre get killed. I can't wait. Listen, it's a great season that's coming up, season six. My man Ro is incredible. No one can play Drake quite like he has. He's been incredible in all of the cast members. I'm so happy to be a part of it.

I think that this season is probably the best one because we'll be able to get a chance to see who people really are, what they're about, and get in their minds and go on the road with them. And all of the worlds are coming together. And it's a beautifully crafted season. I'm so

happy. I'm just surrounded by legends. Oh, man, legendary. Oh, look who rolled up. Look at all fly. Look at you. Oh, you know you cool. You know you cool. No, no. They want to holler at you. Get over here.

They want to holler at you. This is here. They want to holler at you. This is legend. How y'all doing? Look at how smooth and everything. Congratulations on the new movie. He's doing big things as well. It's so great to see you. Bless you, man.

It is wonderful to be seen. Yes, yes. 100%. Always good to see you, baby. Oh, always good to see you too. You still big pimping. Man, I'm so happy to see you on network television and scolding people and keeping them straight. Well, I just got an email.

I'll be on ABC this week in two weeks, so I'll be bringing the funk. I'll be watching. All right, baby. Good to see you, bro. Good seeing you. So, not only have we got power. First of all, before I go there, more people want your ass killed than J.R. Ewing. That I'm doing my job.

That I'm doing my job. You know, as an actor, man, when you can make people feel something, you've done something amazing. You know what I mean? He's been doing it for 25 years. So, 30 years. 35 years. 50 years. He don't age.

He's actually 75 years old. And matter of fact, you done messed up so much, they want to kill your ass too. That's how it goes, you know what I'm saying? Listen, I feel like this. Either you're going to love us or you hate us. One or the other. And I'm cool with it. Don't have it in the middle.

In the middle ain't it. So I'm happy to play one of the bad guys, man. And I got to say this. Thank you for doing what you were doing with the Frederick Douglass, the speeches that needed to be heard on 4th of July, the real deal from our perspective. So I appreciate you doing what you was doing, man. I appreciate it, the real deal from our perspective. So I appreciate you doing what you was doing, man. I appreciate it, my brother. Season six power. Y'all be sure

to watch it. Power! 8 p.m. this weekend. Check it out. All right, folks, I told you that tomorrow is Black Women Equal Pay Day, which is a critically important day, of course. Now, how many people even know about that? So hopefully, if you're black, you will be, if you have the full black experience, Monique, that you'll be actually celebrating that. And of course, it's the approximate day that black women must, it's the approximate day which black women must work into the new year

to make what white non-Hispanic men made at the end of the previous year, the 2019 wage gap for black women and men at 61 cents. Joining me right now is Jocelyn Fry, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Jocelyn, sorry to come to you late, but this is, so when we talk about taking this long, so essentially we got to go eight months into a year

before a black woman makes what a white man made last year. That's exactly right. Wow. It's hard to believe, but I think it just really, you know, makes the point that black women are working at a significant pay disadvantage. And this year have to work almost eight full months into the year to equal what white men earned last year. And the real question is why. And we need to focus on that. Oftentimes when we talk about the pay gap, we just talk about the 80 cent gap, right? But that's the one that's familiar. That's the one that women have generally. But it's really important to talk about the fact that black women are even paid less. And if we want to fix it, we actually have to be intentional about

what the problem is and hone in on what are the strategies to fix it. And what we also are dealing with here is, look, even when you are a black woman who's a college graduate, what you're making compared to a high school person, high school graduate who is white is a stark difference. Right. Well, that's exactly right. And it it defies the narrative that we often tell people that if you go to school and improve your education, your wages will go up. And while that's generally true, it doesn't actually fix the gap. In fact, in some cases, the gap gets larger. So while Black women's wages go up, sure, it's important to get additional education. It doesn't change the fact that you're still at a pay disadvantage when you're compared to your counterparts in college or graduate school or even other forms of education. So we have to get at the fact that even when folks are doing better

and doing the hard work, they're still being paid at a disadvantage. What two things do you think should be done to change this? And who does it? Is it corporate America? Is it federal government? Who does it? Well, I think there's something for everybody to do. The first thing is that we

clearly need to strengthen the law. We need to make clear that, you know, if a black woman, for example, believes that she's being paid unfairly, not simply because she's a woman, not simply because she's black, but because she's a black woman, we ought to be clear that she can bring back that claim and win. There's some courts that recognize those claims. There's some courts that don't. We ought to make sure that black women and any worker has access to basic pay information. They should know what the pay gap is, and they should know that pay gap broken down by race and ethnicity. Those are things that we can mandate that employers do.

But there are also legislative proposals that we can pass. There's also more that we can do around enforcement. The government pays millions of dollars to companies as federal contractors. They should be doing better oversight to really look at not simply pay disparities, but pay disparities experienced by black women. So there are a range of things that employers can do as well. All right. Jocelyn Fry, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And folks, again, tomorrow is Black

Women's Equal Pay Day. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, then. So all right, folks, that's it for us today. We went a little long, but blaming it on Monique. Okay, it was really her fault. There's a black woman named Kamala Harris who has a mending the pay gap plan as part of her proposals. Yeah, I know, I know. Check it out. I know. Tomorrow's Black Women's Day, so that's the story tomorrow. So can you allow us to have a show? I mean, we appreciate you trying to be in today's show and tomorrow's show.

But yeah, yeah, thank you so much. Leave my remarks. Leave your remarks? Yeah, like in Congress. Why don't you leave your written and revised remarks? Does she have the authentic black experience? Is she truly speaking for black women? Right, right. That's a good point right there.

I say she's a black woman. What do y'all say? She is. And I support her. Oh, hell, we're not being covered that day. That's the mother of dumb ass people who don't believe that. All right, y'all. Y'all want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered?

Please go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Every dollar you give goes to support this show to make this show possible. Please join our Bring the Funk fan club by giving via the Cash App, Square, and Register. We, of course, have some great things lined up for you over the year. We want to be able to cover this election like nobody else.

And again, we speak to the Black experience. And what is the Black experience? All of it, which is what we do on this show. And so we want you to support what we do. This is independent. This ain't corporate owned. This is, of course, supported by our sponsors, our partners and also you as well. And so we want you to make that happen. I think all of you who are watching, of course, last month, my man told me we'd exceeded more than eight million views across all our platforms. And we lost this show September 4th of last year.

About 170,000 YouTube subscribers. We now have past 350,000. We've doubled our subs in a year. So we certainly appreciate all that you have done. All right, folks, I got to go. Also, let me say this here. The shirt I have on, it was a one-woman play done at the Progressive National Baptist Convention out of Atlanta. The Fannie Lou Hamer story was an unbelievable production.

So they gave me the shirt, so I told them I was going to wear it on the show. And so that's why I'm wearing it. So if you all see the Fannie Lou Hamer story coming to your town, you don't want to miss it. It's an unbelievable show, so please check it out. And I can't wait till we see Fannie Lou Hamer on the big screen. I told you, Octavia Spencer, when I interviewed her for the James Brown movie, Get On Up, said she would love to play Fann LeHamer. And so let's see actually what happens with that.

All right, y'all. I got to go. I'll see y'all. Stay black. All the way black. Holla! Thank you. this is an iHeart podcast